ST. LOUIS — Sometimes subtle hints fail to get the job done. Sometimes, in order to get the message across, it has to be delivered like an iron skillet to the skull.

Ruben Amaro Jr., who has claimed to be in a buying kind of mood for much of July, might have found some trade-deadline religion Wednesday night at Busch Stadium.

As the Phillies general manager watched his team take a 11-3 walloping from the Cardinals, there were several moments that seemed to clear the air and end the muddled view of the next couple of months for his team.

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Maybe it was watching Michael Young’s continued inability to cover much more than the cocktail napkin Todd Zeile once had characterized as his range. Maybe it was the sight of John Lannan and his .237 average this season being replaced by a pinch-hitter in the top of the fifth by John McDonald and his .103 average. (Spoiler Alert: McDonald proceeded to hit into an inning-murdering double play when the score was 4-1 and the Phils at least could dream of a rally.)

“With one out I figured instead of bunting (Lannan), I would send someone up there and try to get a hit,” said manager Charlie Manuel, who did not make a special request to have McDonald and Mike Martinez comprise 40 percent of his options as pinch-hitters. “Then he hits into a double play.”

Maybe it was seeing how moribund the Phillies are without Domonic Brown, who had to sit out both this loss and today’s series finale after technically suffering concussion-like symptoms following a headlong dive for a fly ball Tuesday night. Maybe it was the hilariously awful diving attempt to catch a Shane Robinson sinking line drive by John Mayberry Jr. in the bottom of the fifth, a futile, faux-effort that left his glove five feet short of the ball, as the Cardinals scored five runs to bust it open.

“He has to keep the ball in front of him. He can’t dive,” Manuel said of Mayberry, who has been forced into everyday action in center by Ben Revere’s fractured ankle. “I talked to him about it. He knows.

“It seemed like everything we did wasn’t good. We came out, dropped a ball, the next guy gets a hit … then all sorts of stuff starts to happen. I think we’re trying as hard as we can try, but that’s just how it went. We had trouble in the outfield, we had trouble all over the place, really.”

There were plenty of things about this game that called into serious question the logic of forging ahead with veterans at the end of their contracts. And maybe, just maybe, the thing that could ultimately close the book on the Phillies’ postseason aspirations for 2013 is this clear slice of reality: The Cardinals are a way, way, way better team, be it in a three-game regular-season series, or a five- or seven-game postseason series.

The Cardinals got a run in the fourth inning when starting pitcher Jake Westbrook drew a two-out walk, then smartly stole second base when Darin Ruf got too casual with holding him on first. On the next pitch, Matt Carpenter lined an RBI single to center. It epitomized what St. Louis does so well and what the Phillies – even when they are at full strength – simply do not have in their makeup.

“When you play that sloppy, it’s definitely not good,” Manuel said. “But that’s part of being a big-league ballplayer. You have to come out and play hard. You don’t get down. You have to play. How long you stay here … that’s what really counts.”

The National League East might be in a shambles – on this night along the Nationals dropped their sixth straight game since the All-Star break, and the Braves lost starting pitcher Tim Hudson to a fractured ankle after it was brutally stomped upon as he covered first base in his start against the Mets Wednesday.

But the fact remains that the Braves are eight games ahead of the Phils in the division and the Reds could be as much as 8½ games ahead for the final wildcard spot. And the Phillies, with so many flaws, so many key injuries, so many players who make you wonder what they are doing in a major-league uniform, don’t seem able to fool anyone into thinking they can do anything but cut bait on this season.